Feb.24, 2012
Above is a mixer extruder for handling multiple materials that Adrian Bowyer built to take four 1.75mm colored filaments and combine them out of a single nozzle. The filaments can be driven at any relative speeds to achieve any proportions of mixing.
Myles Corbett took his idea and adapted on his Mendal. It has two RepRapPro extruder drives at the top with Bowden tubes leading to the nozzle. Myles blocked off two of the four inputs so now they only print black and white.
The photo below shows one of his two-color print: Though it was designed that the two color filaments are being driven synchronously but Myles made the grip screws of one extruder lose, so white was being driven intermittently and a gradient is formed.
This is one nice progress of developing a full-color RepRap 3D printer. Adrian plans also to add an extra electronics to the extruders so they can be driven in any proportions. Or maybe they can not only 3D-print with mixed colors but also find a solution to mix polymers with different characteristics so it can opens up more possibilities of making complex parts.
Photos credit / Source: RepRap
Posted in 3D Printing Technology
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